Cuddly Snakes
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: A sequel to Sneaky Snakes by teddylonglong. Set after book 7 without epilogue , completely AU, partly OOC, sick!Harry, just fluff...


**Cuddl****y Snakes**

**by Healer Pomfrey**

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_A Sequel to Sneaky Snakes _**_**by teddylonglong**_

**_PLEASE ONLY READ AFTER READING SNEAKY SNAKES!_  
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All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._

_I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes__!_

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Harry absentmindedly sipped his tea, tuning out Hermione's and Severus' conversation that revolved about some kind of new potion that Hermione was trying to create. '_Somehow, I don't feel good this morning_,' he thought, torn between relief that his wife Leonie had to work and was on forty-eight hour duty at St. Mungo's and the wish that she'd be here to comfort him and cuddle with him. '_Well, so much about cuddling_,' he realised after a glance at his wrist watch. '_My first class is going to begin in thirty minutes. I need to switch on the PCs and get everything ready_.'

"Harry, are you feeling all right?" Hermione asked in concern, taking in that his face was extremely pale and that beads of sweat were covering his forehead, making his hair stick to his face.

"Of course," Harry replied softly. "I need to get ready then. I'll see you later," he said and headed for the door.

"Harry, wait a moment," Hermione said, apparently not yet convinced that he was all right. "Since I don't have to go to Hogwarts during the holidays, I thought I could as well cook lunch, so that you don't have to cook in the evenings, or if you prefer to cook tonight, we could still have lunch together. What do you think?"

"All right," Harry agreed, although he couldn't even think of eating anything apart from the small bowl of yoghurt he had just had for breakfast. "My class will be over at twelve," he said, sighing as he left the room. '_I hope I'll feel better by then_,' he thought as he climbed upstairs to his computer classroom that was in the third floor of the old town house.

Three hours later, he sighed in relief when his students, a group of ten Ministry employees, left his classroom and took the Floo back to the Ministry. Somehow, he felt even worse than in the morning. While earlier only his head and throat had been sore, now his whole body felt extremely heavy and achy, and his ears were ringing strangely. '_Thank Merlin I don't have any other classes to teach today. I only need to work on the Hogwarts homepage, which I promised McGonagall for tomorrow, and then I have to install the new notebook PC for Leonie. Maybe I should do that first. McGonagall would sure be willing to wait another day, but Leonie's birthday is tomorrow. That can't wait_,' he mused as he returned to Leonie's and his room to fetch one of his warm jumpers that Mrs. Weasley had knitted for him years ago.

"Harry," he heard Hermione call him from downstairs. "Lunch is ready."

Harry inwardly groaned. He didn't feel hungry in the least; however, Hermione could be as stubborn as Mrs. Weasley, especially when he wanted to skip a meal. "I'm coming," he shouted back, noticing horrified that his voice began to crack. He slowly dragged himself downstairs, tightly holding on to the banister as he felt the hall spin around dangerously.

"Harry, are you sick?" Hemrione asked in concern as he moved into the kitchen, causing Severus to cast him a sharp look.

"I'm fine," Harry mumbled as he lowered himself onto the chair next to Severus, unconsciously letting out a relieved sigh.

"How could anyone believe that you were anything than fine?" the Potions Master sneered, quirking an eyebrow as Hermione cast him a warning look.

Harry chose to ignore the older wizard and forced a few bites of carrots and rice down his achy throat, before he slowly put his fork down, looking up startled when he felt an ice-cold hand come to rest on his forehead.

"When is Leonie supposed to come home?" Severus asked sharply.

"Tomorrow night I think," Harry replied wearily, shivering violently at the cold touch.

"Very well," Severus continued, "if you're done eating, I suggest that you move and go to bed right away. I'll come and check on you in a few minutes."

Harry nodded miserably, knowing that he wouldn't be able to fool his best friends. He dragged himself back to his room and scrambled into bed. He was just about to drift off to sleep, when Severus entered the room, a small black bag in his hand.

"What exactly is ailing you?" he enquired, pulling himself a chair to the side of Harry's bed.

"I don't know. Everything hurts a bit," Harry mumbled, tiredly following the older wizard's hands' movement.

Severus lit the tip of his wand and closely peered into Harry's eyes, mouth and ears. Harry sighed in relief when he saw that the older wizard slid his wand back into his robes but groaned instants later, when Severus produced a Muggle thermometer from the black bag and instructed him to open his mouth.

While Harry tried not to choke on the icy stick in his mouth that made him feel even more miserable, Severus carefully pulled Harry's jumper and T-shirt up and used a Muggle stethoscope to check his breathing. A frown replaced the usual blank mask on his face and intensified even more when he read the display of the thermometer.

"Harry, I'm not sure what you have caught, but your fever is too high to experiment with the most common potions," Severus said in his soft, baritone voice. "I will call Leonie."

"No," Harry replied, terrified. "Please don't call her. I'll just try to sleep it off."

"No Harry, you need someone to properly check on you if Severus can't help you," Hermione said firmly, causing Harry to look up in surprise.

'_When did she come in_?' he wondered, glancing at his friend in disbelief. '_I didn't notice her at all_.'

"Do you prefer that we call Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked gently, placing a cold towel on Harry's burning forehead.

"No," he said impatiently, feeling grateful but at the same time annoyed at his friends' concern. "I'll be fine."

"Very well then, try to sleep for a while. I'll be back to check on you in a few hours," Severus said in a soft voice, ushering his wife out of the room.

Harry was just about to drift off to sleep, when he remembered the work that he still had to do that day. He slowly dragged himself out of bed and through the connecting door into his office to fetch the notebook that he wanted to give Leonie for her birthday. A short while later, he snuggled back into bed with the notebook on his knees and half a dozen CDs piled on his night table. Unfortunately, he noticed soon that he felt even dizzier when he looked at the small screen, but knowing that Leonie really needed her new notebook, he did his best to install everything according to her requirements. Harry was so deeply engrossed in his work that he nearly jumped startled when Severus' voice penetrated his ears like from far away.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Potions Master asked sternly.

"I needed to finish Leonie's birthday present," Harry croaked, "but I'm just done."

Severus glared at Harry while he held out the thermometer for him. "What are you waiting for?" he drawled, seeing that Harry merely turned the glassy stick in his hands.

"I don't feel so good. Can I just sleep for a while?" Harry mumbled, giving his friend a pleading look.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but I need to know if your fever came down at least a bit. Otherwise, I must call Leonie," Severus replied in a much softer voice as he reached for Harry's wrist to feel his pulse. Realising that Harry seemed to feel too miserable to care what was happening since he just lay down with his eyes closed, the Muggle device still in his hand, Severus sighed. He gently pried the thermometer off the younger wizard and put it back into his bag, before he carefully lifted the notebook from Harry's lap and placed it into a drawer, before he headed to the fireplace to call Leonie at St. Mungo's.

Harry drifted in and out of a fever induced slumber, only ready to open his achy eyes again when he heard Leonie's voice.

"Hey sweetie, can you look at me for a moment?" she asked softly, gently placing a few kisses on his forehead and cheeks, before she waved her wand over him to cast a series of diagnostic spells.

Harry gave her a bleary look but closed his eyes again right away, noticing that he world was spinning around constantly.

"Harry, you caught the squid's flu," Leonie whispered and turned to Severus. "He needs a level four fever reducer and the potion for the squid's flu."

Severus nodded in understanding. "It'll take an hour to brew. I'll send Hermione with the fever reducer."

Leonie agreed and instructed him to brew the preventive potion for Hermione and himself as well. A few minutes later, she spelled the first potion into Harry's system, causing her husband to let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you; that's much better," he croaked, reaching out for her cold hand.

Leonie let out a long sigh. "Harry, I don't know if you have ever heard of the squid's flu, but it'll take at least a week of feeling quite miserable. The only thing that you can do except for resting and sleeping is to get fresh air and especially sunshine. If you feel well enough after the first dose of the squid's flu potion, you may transform into your snake form and lie down on the roof for a while," she said in a soft voice, gently stroking his flushed cheeks.

Harry unconsciously leaned into the cold touch that felt so well to his hot skin. '_Am I delirious_?' he wondered, recalling that Leonie had forbidden him to transform when he had been running a temperature a few weeks ago. However, when he changed into his snake form an hour later, he noticed that he felt considerably better and slowly followed Leonie in her snake form up to the roof, where he slept again until Leonie woke him up when the first stars appeared at the sky. She soothingly whispered to him, instructing him to change back into his human form and go back to bed during the night.

In the morning, Leonie once again allowed Harry to lie on the roof in his snake form to enjoy the sunshine and cuddle with her.

"Don't you have to work?" Harry mumbled in exhaustion as he curled up next to her dark blue form.

"No ssweetie; I took the whole week off, becaussse I need to nurssse you back to health," Leonie hissed back in a soothing voice and instructed him to go back to sleep. "I'll be alwaysss here for you," she whispered, smiling as she observed the potions slowly take effect and cause his ophidian skin to cool down and return to its usual green colour.

"Love you, Leonie," Harry mumbled sleepily, "and Happy Birthday."

"Love you too, Harry," Leonie whispered back, glancing at the brown and black ophidian forms of Hermione and Severus, who were lying on the other side of the roof, cuddling and keeping them company for the day, which was not only her birthday but a special day for both couples as well.

All of a sudden, Harry opened his eyes. "Is that true?" he hissed in a hoarse voice. "Hermione and you are both pregnant?"

"I didn't ssay anything," Leonie hissed back in surprise, wondering if the high fever enabled him to read her thoughts or if it only was because he was delirious. Seeing that Harry looked at her expectantly, she added, "But you're right, Harry; we need to change thisss roof to a ssafe place for two human babiesss."

Harry mumbled something about their babies being natural Animagi and was just about to drift back to slumber, when Leonie leaned over and pulled him into a long and passionate kiss. "Thank you sweetie for the bessst birthday present ever," she whispered as she finally pulled away, looking happily at the dark blue skin of her stomach.

**The End**


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